The popularity of the Internet, coupled with the increasing capabilities of personal/mobile electronic devices, has provided consumers with the ability to enjoy multimedia content almost anytime and anywhere. For example, live (e.g., sports events) and video on demand (VOD) content (e.g., pre-recorded television shows and movies) can be streamed via the Internet to personal electronic devices (e.g., computers, mobile phones, and Internet-enabled televisions).
Broadcast television channels typically include one or more closed captioning tracks to make programs more accessible to those that are deaf or hard of hearing. Similarly, movies on digital video discs (DVDs) often include subtitle tracks in multiple languages. However, Internet-accessible content is not typically provided with closed captioning. Moreover, the large number of available closed captioning formats makes it difficult to implement closed captioning systems that are compatible with the various electronic devices and platforms available to consumers, even though government regulations may mandate closed captioning for Internet-accessible content. For example, in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a rule entitled “Closed Captioning of Internet Protocol-Delivered Video Programming: Implementation of Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010.” Many providers for streaming video may be concerned with only a specific streaming technology, application, or platform. Thus, a single-platform closed captioning system offered by such providers in response to government regulations may not support a large number of users that use different closed captioning formats and may not scale as new closed captioning formats become popular.